dred thousand dollars;
and if we allow half a barrel each to the slaves and free blacks, which
would be the natural result, being not only the best but cheapest food,
we have an annual demand of from four to five hundred thousand barrels
more of the great staple production of the United States. This is an
item worth considering by political economists. At the present time, the
imports into this country from thence exceed our exports to Cuba to the
amount of nearly one million of dollars annually.

But we were writing of the vegetable productions of the island, when
this digression occurred.

The Royal Palm is the noblest tree of Cuba, rising from thirty to fifty
feet, and sometimes even twice this height, with a straight stem, while
from the top spring the broad and beautiful leaves, in a knot, like a
plume of ostrich feathers. The bark is equally divided by ornamental
ringlets encircling it, each one marking a year of its age. A
peculiarity of this tree is, that it has no substance in the interior of
the trunk,[50] yet the outside, to the thickness of an inch and more,
makes the finest of boards, and, when seasoned, will turn a board nail
with one stroke of the hammer. The top of the palm yields a vegetable
which is much used upon the table, and, when boiled, resembles in flavor
our cauliflower. The cocoanut tree very much resembles the palm, the
branches diverging, like the ribs of an umbrella, from one common
centre, among which the fruit hangs in tempting clusters far out of
reach from the ground. The plantain, with its profuse clusters of
finger-like fruit, grows low like the banana, which it vastly resembles,
and the entire trunk of both are renewed yearly; the old stock, after
yielding its crop, decaying rapidly, and forming the most nutritious
matter for the soil that can be had. Many of the hedges through the
plantations are formed of aloes, of a large and luxuriant growth, with
dagger-like points, and stiff, long leaves, bidding defiance to ingress
or egress, yet ever ornamented with a fragrant cup-like flower. Lime
hedges are also very abundant, with their clusters of white blossoms,
and there is a vast supply of mahogany and other precious woods, in the
extensive forests.

It is somewhat remarkable that there is not a poisonous reptile or
animal of any sort in Cuba. Snakes of various species abound, but are
said to be perfectly inoffensive, though sometimes destructive to
domestic fowls. During a pleasant